Leaderboard

I think it was around 2016, that I was first allowed to test a new script in a leadership capacity. Bare in mind, this was well before any of us had read the writing on the wall, and we were still rosy cheeked enough to legitimately believe that this was going to be the first addition of many, certifying Mmartin as a capable lead developer. I don't think Bay Area had happened yet, and GTA:W / GTA:5 roleplay was little more than quiet whispers in Skype calls. When I look at the current state of affairs, I'm brought back to those moments. Broken promises, missed deadlines, empty reassurances, and little regard for the brunt that the rest of staff had to bear for all of it. Reading admin posts is like looking in a mirror. The blind defense of a man who really doesn't give a fuck about you or anything else is something you'll really only ever understand when you're sitting in that seat. If I had to guess, it comes from a place of passion for the game. If I had to warrant another, the snarky attitude is misplaced frustration with Mmartin. Trust me, they know. They hate him too. I think it's plainly obvious that everybody still here is here for a love of the game, and a love for the community. If you would spare me just a moment of your time, I'd ask you to really think about what made LS:RP what it was. What is it you loved, what made it fun, what kept you coming back for more? If I could dare to get even more abstract: what was LS:RP? • LS:RP was us. You, me, and every other person who made a contribution to this game. Every administrator, every tester, every player, every faction, and every shred of effort that a group of likeminded, infinitely creative and impassioned players and friends alike had made across 12+ years. LS:RP was the community, and the infinite potential every one of us saw that the game could be, and came together with our combined imaginations to make it so. Feel free to disagree individually with any of my points, but I guarantee you every single one of them is a cherished memory to somebody here: • LS:RP was staying up till 3:00a.m with your friends, making a faction thread for the sheer fun of it; • LS:RP was Chete's MS13, revolutionizing the concept of factions, introducing hundreds of us to gang role play (including myself); • LS:RP was pioneers of inventive types of role play, like Shah of Persia, and R. Hout, who never stopped pushing the limit on exploring new concepts; • LS:RP was incredible individual character stories, curated on the screenshots & videos forum as a quiet time capsule of days past; • LS:RP was logging onto stunting servers / dm servers during server outages, or settling Skype arguments on that one server (for the life of me I can't remember the name! Koky's?); • LS:RP was the infinite contributions of people like Westside and Obsessi0n, who otherwise pushed the boundaries on individual characters and gang quality; • LS:RP was the infinitely deep, and infinitely static LCN scene, baring no greater sense of passion from a group of players on any game I've ever seen before; • LS:RP was the individual contributions of testers at the crack of dawn, hammering the last of the applications down after a particularly busy night; • LS:RP was walking into Meathead's Deli for the first time in 2014 and being introduced to casual, passive role play for the first time, and falling in love with it whilst Bob Seger blares over that 181.fm station; • LS:RP was midnight conversations with Bospy, Pitchounette and KaylaSpace, discussing what our dream FBI faction would be; • LS:RP was every internal gang war. Finding out that Nova died still gives me goosebumps, or having Icey retaliate for ColossalBQ CKing me; • LS:RP was figuring out how the hell to install IRC for the first time, when you got tester; • LS:RP was Teamspeak fights about the direction of your faction and where it should move forward. I never got to apologize to iJoker and I regret it; • LS:RP was the transition between ENB to the "elite" grime era of screenshots; • LS:RP was getting caught behind the Ganton blue projects with your gun stash by a pair of prying eyes, and logging off pissed off because you know the rest of your week is SACF; • LS:RP was the 2014-2016 era casinos. Companies like Roux and BION are still firmly branded into my brain; • LS:RP was learning about the mechanic paycheck in the county, and beating yourself up over the 50 hours you played without it; • LS:RP was seeing the name "Settlemire" (I think?) in the distance and pissing your pants in Skype about the incoming casefile; • LS:RP was the transition towards "grime" role play, focusing on drug dependency and mental illness, racism and other uncomfortable topics, pioneered by factions like Peddlers of Death; • LS:RP was the Iraq War level gang conflicts between factions like Beasley & Associates (love u Damaz), Crenshaw, Hoover, WGS18, ViperZ, EHC, and the thousand other factions I'm woefully forgetting as I write this; • LS:RP was the individual contribution of every administrator who took time out of their day to contribute to something they loved; • LS:RP was the individual contribution of every tester, every forum moderator, and every subteam member who worked to help make the community what it was; • LS:RP was the individual contribution of every faction leader, every member of FMP, and every player who worked to build their faction and make a permanent mark on the server; • LS:RP was long lasting friendships. I still play games with Surreal on a regular basis; LS:RP was us. I'm not putting my neck out to burn a bridge. Believe me, I love this game as much as any of you do. I'm not trying to shit on anybody, but I'm simply asking you to heed my warning: don't commit to something and blindly defend it because it's name is attached to something that you love. Their is very fair criticism to be had on the matter, and I'm asking you to place it correctly. Kane, Bennemus, and whoever are easy to direct your frustrations at because they respond. Don't let them be another lightning rod. We caught enough for him.

In one week we will be at HALF A YEAR since a Patreon update.